We are deeply sad to learn that Richard Newton passed away from pancreatic cancer on January 1, 2007. He was 56 and was survived by his two daughters and wife Petra. In lieu of flowers, his family asks that any contributions be made payable to the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley designated for the Berkeley Center for Synthetic Biology:

QB3-UC Berkeley
Attn: Berkeley Center for Synthetic Biology
227 Hildebrand Hall #3220
Berkeley, CA 94720-3220

The EDA Consortium owes a great debt to Richard for his great contributions our industry. We recently honored Richard Newton, Dean of the College of Engineering with the 2003 Kaufman Award in October 2003. (Click for photos and video.) At that time, the following was said about Richard Newton:

"Professor Newton's contributions to advancing the EDA industry are numerous and significant, directly impacting the success of our users- electronic designers," remarked Walden C. Rhines, EDA Consortium chairman and chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corporation. "Richard has been a visionary and catalyst for advancing our industry in his role as mentor, educator, researcher and entrepreneur."

Richard Newton is also the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at Berkeley and was the founding Director of the MARCO/DARPA Gigascale Silicon Research Center for Design and Test from 1998-2002. His teaching and research interests include all aspects of the design of electronic systems and the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) to the solution of societal problems.

Aart de Geus, presenter of the Kaufman award and chairman and CEO of Synopsys, Inc., added, "Rich embodies the heart and soul of the EDA industry. His unfailing enthusiasm for the power of EDA to uphold Moore's Law serves as a continuing inspiration to us all. Speaking for myself, Synopsys owes a great debt of gratitude to Rich, for without his vision and dedication, we would not be the company that we are today."

Dr. Newton began his EDA career as a student at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he developed one of the first interactive versions of the SPICE circuit simulator in 1971, using an ASR33 teletype. He continued his work in circuit simulation at Berkeley, pioneering mixed-mode simulation and then developing with his students a timing analysis technique in the mid-1980s.

Dr. Newton introduced the notion of a "CAD Framework" to the research community in 1979-where a unified data model, open tool-based integration methodology and extension language are used to construct and evolve an EDA system. This work was used as the technical foundation for SDA Systems, now Cadence Design Systems. He was also part of the core team that developed EDIF (Electronic Design Interchange Format).

Dr. Newton has also played a key role in the formation of several successful EDA companies, including Synopsys, Inc., SDA, PIE Design Systems and Simplex Solutions (now part of Cadence) among others.